


A fair fight

by A_Sirius_Attempt_at_Writing



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: (only very briefly), Ahsoka has her period, Cramps, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Mentioned Mace Windu, Mentioned Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mentioned Plo Koon, Nice Asajj Ventress, Sickfic, Ventress cares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25936357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Sirius_Attempt_at_Writing/pseuds/A_Sirius_Attempt_at_Writing
Summary: Ahsoka knows she probably shouldn‘t be on the battlefield while she has her period.To her surprise, Ventress agrees.or:I am obsessed with Zabraks and I hate my period. This is the result.
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Asajj Ventress, Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 5
Kudos: 86





	A fair fight

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic in this fandom.  
> I am fairly new to writing in English, this is my second fic and I am absolutely not a native. If you find any obscurely long sentences, weird commas or just random words starting with capital letters, please forgive me.  
> German is stupid, we have way too many commas, sometimes very long sentences and we write all nouns with capital letters. Also, if there are any words that should have started with a capital letter but didn't, I am sorry, I am confused.
> 
> Also, this is set roughly somewhere during the first or second season of TCW.

Periods. A rather specific topic that multiple jedi masters were not particularly fond of when it came to teaching the younglings about it. The ‘No Attachments’-policy of the council made it pretty useless for any males and the few females that went through heats but still, it was taught to everyone at the age of ten at the Temple.

When Ahsoka had found out that her body would start to randomly at some point in her life, she wasn’t terrified. Not at all. It was just a little blood, so why was everyone making such a fuss about it?

At that point in live, she hadn’t known that periods could be extremely painful to some species. She had known that, as Master Windu had put it into words “some females will experience side symptoms and other mild inconveniences“ but she hadn’t thought this would mean excruciating pain for hours and hours on.

So when she had had her first period, she honestly thought she was dying. She was bleeding, her lekku and montrals were overly sensitive to a point where her head felt like it would explode and her stomach hurt so much that she had struggle walking.

As Anakin was away on some kind of special mission for the council, it was up to Obi-Wan to calm her down and somewhat explain her that it was, in fact, completely normal for most togrutan females to feel this way.

To say she had been unhappy was an understatement. Somehow she had only got her period in between missions so far, when they were at the temple and she could hide in her room all day.

However, this time she wouldn’t be so lucky.

—.—.—.—

When Ahsoka woke up, she just laid in bed, groggily blinking. For one heavenly moment, she thought that she was in the temple, warm, sheltered, buried under numerous comfortable blankets. Then the pain torn through her stomach again and she remembered last night.

At some point she had woken up, her body already aching, the blankets and her sleep pants bloody. Falling asleep wasn’t an option after quietly changing and crawling back to bed, so she laid in her bunk and stared at the ceiling. In the bunk over her, Anakin groaned in his sleep. At least she hadn’t woken him up when she was cleaning up the bed.

Ahsoka knew, she couldn’t have slept for much more than an hour. The next day wouldn’t be easy. She didn’t have any hopes of spending it in bed, like she would normally do.

They had already spent the better half of yesterday preparing for the battles which raged on Rugosa where they were supposed to come to Master Koon’s aid today. He was doing a good job at defeating the droids but apparently Asajj Ventress’ ship had been seen, heading in the direction of the Toydarian moon.

This information had made the council reconsider the mission and she and Anakin had been sent to help. They just had finished their own, pretty exhausting mission and originally they were heading back to coruscant but they were also the closest to Master Plo’s position, so the task was theirs.

If she thought about it now, Ahsoka could clearly remember feeling off yesterday but she had just written that off due to the great deal of stress and exhaustion from their previous mission. The fact that she was due to get her period had only dawned on her when she had woken up last night, her stomach painfully cramping and her montrals hurting from the rough pillow.

Groaning, Ahsoka lifted herself from the cot and stretched her sore body. For now the cramps had gone away but she knew they’d return later. They always did.

She was pushed out of her thoughts when her comm buzzed.

”Ahsoka, do you hear me? Where are you?“

Anakin’s voice sounded impatient and she tried to get at least her hands from shaking before answering.

”I’m in my quarters. Is something going on?“

„Kriff, Ahsoka, we are approaching Rugosa. Everybody’s preparing to take off, you should have been in the hangar ten minutes ago.“

Ahsoka sucked in a breath and cursed. She should have known something was wrong when the corridor in front of her door had been so suspiciously quiet. Usually, there was always noise form the troopers or droids that walked through the corridors but everybody had already headed for the hangar.

”I’ll be there in five.“, she quickly said into the comm before slipping into her fighting gear and grabbing her lightsaber.

By the time, she arrived at their shuttle, most of the other ships had flown off and there were only a few ones left.

”How many times do I have to tell you to be on time? Punctuality is important if you want to…“, as soon as the shuttle left the ship, she drifted off, noticing the building pressure on her stomach that would become the painful cramps she knew so well. If only she could have taken something for that before they left…

”… Ahsoka?“

Ahsoka lifted her head to see Anakin looking at her. Apparently her master had finished his lecture and seemed to expect some sort of answer of her.

”It’s not as if you were always on time. I’m sure Obi-Wan agrees with me“, she spat out and turned away from him. However, she still noticed the weird look Anakin shot her. Usually a discussion like that wouldn’t end this way and she knew her words were a bit harsh but with the exhaustion from a night awake and fighting off the agony that came with the reoccurring cramps, she felt like her behaviour was more than justified.

It wasn’t the occasional stab of pain like the one that hit her right now which kept her from sleeping. The lingering ache that could stay for hours or days was far worse. Those aches were the ones which would drain her body of any energy and made even the tiniest exercises like agony.

The shuttle made a small bump in the air as they entered the atmosphere and Ahsoka’s stumbled a step forward as her head started spinning. From that second on she knew, she was doomed.

Suppressing a whimper as the ship took a turn and the pain in the stomach spiked, Ahsoka did her best to concentrate on staying on her feet. Standing for long times was one of the top items on her ’What not to do when experiencing periods’ list.

Tight clothes like the ones she was currently wearing were also raking rather high on that list. ”Alright, we’re landing. Get ready!“, Anakin shouted through the shuttles engines and only moments later the doors opened and he and the first troopers jumped out. Normally Ahsoka would have followed them but staying in the ship until they had reached stable ground seemed like a better idea. Plus, the cold air which pushed through the ship hurt her montrals and only aggravated her a headache.

When she arrived at the battle, Anakin was already fighting off droids. Master Koon seemed to be somewhere deeper in the masses of droids, she could only spot his lightsaber cutting down was battle droids. Ahsoka also started to fight her way through the seperatist’s army but found it hard to concentrate.

She felt off, like something was extremely wrong but she couldn’t quite place the feeling. The force was trying to tell her something, it sounded like a warning but it wasn’t very clear. What was she missing?

She got her answer as she heard the sound of a lightsaber activating behind her. Turning around, Ahsoka already knew who she was going to face: Asajj Ventress, Dooku’s assassin.

”I wasn’t expecting you here, little one. Shouldn’t you and your master still be on the other side of the galaxy?“, she purred with her usual grin on her face. Ventress face showed a look of enjoyment, Ahsoka hadn’t seen on her before. She was clearly looking forward to the fight.

The longer she saw the assassins face, the more she regretted coming to the battle. If she had a chance, she would have stayed in her room. However, in this war, the choice clearly wasn’t hers.

”Can’t say the same about you. Last time I heard about you, you were still running errands for your master.“, Ahsoka said. The ache in her stomach only intensified as she went into a defensive stance, ready to block Ventress’ attack when it came.

Ventress attacked with her incredible strength and nearly knocked Ahsoka to the ground. She gasped and ducked, just before the assassin’s lightsaber could injure her shoulder but she wasn’t fast enough to escape the hilt that hit her in the left montral.

The hot, white pain that shot through her head brought Ahsoka to her knees. It was overwhelming her and with a broken cry, she fell to the ground. The pounding in her head grew and made her feel more and more nauseous.

She couldn’t throw up here, not on the battlefield, not in front of Ventress, not if she wanted to live, not if…

In her panic, Ahsoka didn’t notice Ventress disabling her lightsabers. The assassin had put them back on her belt and slowly crouched down in front of her.

Ahsoka’s breath came faster and she could feel the bile rising at the back of her mouth when suddenly, she felt something touch her face.

”What is wrong with you, Padawan?“, she asked and laid her hand on Ahsoka’s chin. It almost felt gentle.

Ahsoka also disabled her saber and looked at the assassin with fear in her eyes. The silence only confused Asajj more. Something was wrong with the child. Usually the girl would be full of energy and fighting back until she passed out but now something was wrong with her. She shouldn’t be on the brink of collapsing already, they had barely done anything. She hadn’t even attacked at full strength and when she had disabled her lightsaber, the padawan hadn’t used her opportunity and attacked her. Instead she had only weakly shuddered and hadn’t even raised her eyes from the ground.

Asajj dipped into the force and felt out for Ahsoka’s energy. She wasn’t surprised at feeling the exhaustion and pain she was radiating in the force but she surely was surprised at the origin of it.

”What are you doing out here?“, she demanded to know but the padawan just looked at her with big confused eyes.

”What?“, she croaked out, her voice suddenly sounded as exhausted as she was feeling and she looked absolutely miserable.

”You shouldn’t be on a battlefield. You should be resting. Why did your master let you go and fight?“

”Oh…“, Ahsoka didn’t quite know what to say. The way the assassin was talking to her didn’t seem to make any sense and even under normal circumstances she knew she wouldn’t have a clue about what was going on.

Asajj still looked at her, getting more confused as time went on. The girl was clearly hurt and had been hurting for quite some time if what the force had told her was accurate. While she wasn’t overly skilled in abilities like force healing because her occupation as an assassin didn’t demand it, she had a talent for recognising injuries and ailments quickly. She was also a woman and knew what was going on with the smaller one. So why was she on the battle field?

Periods for Zabraks were fairly normal compared to humans. However, they were much more painful for those who had the bad luck of being increased force sensitive including Asajj herself. From a fairly young age, she had to learn how to function under a high amount of pain and though she hated to admit it, it had helped her later on in her apprenticeship with Dooku. The count punished her for every small mistake she did in her younger years. Her skin could still tell the tales of those many failures.

However painful her periods had been in the past, she had never experienced something like the agony that was rolling off the togruta into the force right now. Usually the girl was much better at shielding, she was learning from Kenobi and his former padawan, so that was to be expected. Right now, none of her shields were raised and Asajj could only hope that Skywalker’s shielding was strong enough not to feel his padawan’s pain.

It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t like a male to feel a woman’s pain for once but the idea of Skywalker coming for her because he thought she had poisoned his apprentice wasn’t particularly appealing.

Still, she had no idea why the girl was here on the battlefield, fighting instead of resting in a cot on the battleship that hovered over Rugosa. Yes, the sith weren’t overly helpful or understanding in situations like these, probably because nearly all of them were male but surely the jedi had to be more open about menstruation. She had met a lot of female jedi in the past and though she wasn’t sure if all of them menstruated, a majority should do. So why was this padawan out here and not with a medic?

“Does your master know?”, Asajj asked, her tone very polite compared to her usual one.

“No...?”, the girl’s answer didn’t sound very convincing so Asajj raised her eyebrow and repeated her question.

“Are you sure that your master doesn’t know?”

The girl huffed frustrated and evaded her gaze by looking at the ground but Asajj wouldn’t let her get away with that.

“Is asked a clear question and so I demand to get an evenly clear answer from you. If you need to know, I am perfectly aware of your situation and it’s nature, so please, go on and explain.“

Ahsoka flinched as Ventress put her hand up to her right lek, increasing the headache that had formed from the loud noises of the battle. The touch, even if it was just light, wasn’t doing her sensitive lekku any good. Surprisingly, Ventress withdrew her hand as soon as she seemed to realise it was causing her pain.

“Right now, I don’t think he knows. I guess he suspects something…“, she thought of the weird look Anakin had given her on the flight, „but we never talked about it. When I got my first period, he was away on a single mission, so he wasn’t involved.“

It felt weird, telling the assassin about this. At the temple, she never talked about her periods, not even with Barriss.

She blushed as Ventress cocked her head to the side and mustered her body.

“Your lekku are obviously sensitive and you are probably experiencing stomach cramps. What’s wrong besides that?”

Ahsoka blinked a few times before she actually answered:

“Why do you want to know?”

It was pretty clear that the assassin wasn’t going to attack her in this state but that she was asking for her wellbeing was pretty strange at least.

“Because you need clearly help and I doubt that you will be telling this to the medics yourself. There’s a reason you’re Kenobi’s grandpadawan.”

Asajj saw the padawan tensing up again and she didn’t think the girl would actually answer but then, Ahsoka spoke up again.

“The noise is giving me a headache and... I’m kinda dizzy from the cramps.”

Her words were hesitant and Asajj could feel her confusion and embarrassment in the force. She sighed and gently laid a hand on the girl’s stomach. It was hard with tension and slowly, she began to rub the orange skin. She knew her healing abilities would only go as far as dampening the pain but they shouldn’t do any harm. There wasn’t anything wrong with trying.

The padawan moaned as her pain became slightly duller and immediately blushed at her noise. Asajj grinned and let a bit more of the force flow into the young one’s body.

“That’s all I can do. I am not trained with healing, so I guess it should be better for you to go back to your master and let him do the rest.”

Ahsoka’s big eyes rested on her, as she nodded and tried to stand up but quickly went down again. It seemed like the girl’s legs weren’t ready to support her just yet.

Asajj stood there and watched her for a few seconds, trying to decide what she should do now. It surely would be the best for her to let the padawan sit here and leave for the battle but she wasn’t feeling completely comfortable knowing she couldn’t get up and fight if a droid attacked her.

“Don’t try to stand on your own. I’ll help you get back to your ship.”

“Why?”, Ahsoka was absolutely confused. “Why do you keep helping me? You could have just killed me when I collapsed but you didn’t.“

“I don’t fight if the fight isn’t fair.”

The assassin’s answer surprised Ahsoka. She wouldn’t have thought that separatists would think about fairness in a fight. A disadvantage of the opponent was always an advantage for oneself. At least that was what she learnt from the battles she experienced so far.

Ventress grabbed her under the arms and lifted her up from the ground. After stumbling a few uncontrolled steps forward, the zabrak pulled her closer. Through the other’s thin bodysuit, Ahsoka could feel her body heat on her skin. She moaned and instinctively turned towards the assassin, her body craving the warmth.

It was like her brain had shut down and everything up there just screamed “Warm! Need comfort!”. Ahsoka had expected Ventress to push her away but instead she tightened her grip and pulled her closer. She smelled dark, heavy and surprisingly fresh. It reminded Ahsoka of the herbs of Corvala.

One of her earliest memories took place in the streets of the city. She was running through the vendors, someone, family, chasing after her. There had been smoke and the strong scent of healing herbs in the air. It was one of the memories she thought of when she needed to calm herself. The force around her soaked up in her happiness, the fainting echo of a child’s laughter in her ears.

“Have you ever returned to your planet?”

The assassin’s voice didn’t sound much different this time but Ahsoka could feel that her question was genuine. Before she answered, she reached out to the force to feel her shields and noticed that they were worryingly loose around the edges. It must have been the reason why Ventress had been able to see her memory.

“No. It is not wanted for jedi to return to their birth planet. The council fears the attachment of families. Traditions are respected though.”

She gazed down to her skirt with the Togruta sash. Beside her, Ventress let out a dry laugh.

“Attachment does not make you weak. What your council thinks is complete bantha fodder. A family gives you strength to fight. Everything else becomes trivial when you fight for a loved one that’s why your precious council doesn’t want you to have ‘attachments’.”

There is so much emotion on her face that Ahsoka stopped right in her track. The assassin noticed and quickly put on a blank expression before continuing.

“But if you loose them, there won’t be any light left in you. Everything will become grey, before slowly, your anger eats you up and you decent into the darkness because everything seems better than the toneless reality you’re living in.“

Ventress voice was full of hatred and bitterness as she said the last words and Ahsoka couldn’t help herself but to shutter. The sound of the assassin’s voice that shook her to the bone. She wanted to say something, anything but just in that moment they arrived at the transport.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually did a lot of research, much more than I would have imagined I would need.  
> I sadly never found what I was looking for, so I had to improvise. Here's the stuff I just made up.
> 
> 1\. periods  
> There isn't any information anywhere on if Togruta or Zabraks have periods. However, for Togruta I found our that their pregnancies sounded fairly similar compared to human one's and Zabraks seem to be able to have children with humans. That just made me decided that they're both going to have periods.  
> I also took the idea of the sensitive lekku from a fanfiction from fanfiction.com and I have to admit I can’t remember the name though I am pretty sure I found it through googling something like ‘togruta period’. Yes, my search history looks pretty wild now.
> 
> 2\. Shili and trade  
> For Ahsoka's memory, I wanted to create a nice, light atmosphere with something from her home planet. Apparently there isn't really any information about what trade Shili does but a Wookieepedia said that Corvala is known for some kind of healing, so I got creative and now Ventress smells like herbs.
> 
> I am also thinking of writing a prequel and a sequel to this.  
> The prequel would be about Ahsoka's first period and Obi-Wan slightly panicking while trying to calm her down.  
> The sequel would be more in a humor direction with Anakin being confused af and Plo and Ventress lecturing him about periods.  
> Please tell me if you'd be interested in reading something like that ^^


End file.
